17. Quint

seventeen

Quint

Four months ago

S ilver

"How can you just kick me out?" I shout at Jenny. "I've worked here for three years. You need me."

"Silver, I'm not kicking you out. The money has gone. I can't afford for you to stay. If I could, I would."

I growl and stomp around the office.

"Can you go out and organise putting the clothes in boxes for the auction?"

"What if he finds me?"

Jenny stops, she looks up at me, and her expression softens. "You can't hide forever, Silver. At some point, you need to realise you're healed and go out into the world and take back what they stole from you."

I stare at her, my hope fading but a curious desire to see what's out there rising up.

"If you get into trouble, come back. This will always be your home, Silver. But you need to face your demons. You need to try."

Present Day

Onyx sits politely in our lounge room but her stillness is eerie. She is a blank version of her sister, but right now, I see the power of the Treyfield pack simmering in her. There is so much similarity in the way she and Silver echo each other. They should have what Quint and I have, a connection that is more. It's transcendent. They are twins, and today for the first time, I see it. I see Silver in Onyx, and it hurts me. And it makes me more afraid than I've ever been. Where is she? She's so good at disappearing. Come on West, find her. You can do it.

Ian stands silently beside me, while Ross is beside him. We are a wall of hate, and this bitch of an omega hasn't even realised it. Dylan, Onyx's omega, has a hand on her shoulder like he's anchoring her or holding her from breaking. Falcon watches from the door frame, his fury making the room inhospitable. Silas and Grayson stepped out at Falcon's snapped command. But, still, this woman that fate saw fit to give us as ours smiles as she rips away the blindfold and reveals the true wounds that Silver carries. Each word steals the air from my lungs and replaces it with an ache that pushes me towards insanity. It's all I can do to listen, to bear witness.

Brandy lifts the cup of tea I reluctantly brought her and smiles into it. I see that smile, and I hate her. She thinks she's won. Sitting in our home, having chased off our omega, with part of our pack standing here dancing attendance upon her. As soon as she's gone, I want this couch torched. At Ian's order, I've kept Brandy here until Pack Treyfield arrived. I didn't like it, but I could see his reasoning. She's too self-centered to realise we're all simmering in a homicidal rage. A low growl vibrates in my throat as Onyx lifts her own tea cup but sets it down without drinking. I see a tremor in her hands.

"So, you're telling me my sister was raped a few weeks before the fire that killed my parents occurred? She went to the police, but no one believed her. Even my father? And you know this because your pack told you." Onyx glances back at Dylan. "I had no idea about any of this."

Brandy smirks and shifts her weight, sipping from the china cup. I really want to smash her face into it, but Ross is right. We can restore what Silver lost if we play this right. I just hope West finds her in time. Meanwhile, it's taking everything I have not to strangle this omega in front of me.

"Oh, there's more."

"There's more?" Onyx asks. Her chin trembles, but she manages a smile. "Tell me."

"Well, there was talk about how you could go to her house to be serviced."

Onyx turns her gaze away, helplessly looking to Silas. Her face is chalk white. "While I was at work? They came to her while I was working? Oh, my god. Who went to the house?"

"Oh, there was a pack. One of them was at the Omega Meet. You'd know them. Really respectable. And Ryan from my pack. He went there a lot. Said he only had her once."

I close my eyes. The reason she ran from us has suddenly become clear. We went to the Omega Meet pretending we had nothing, no connections, no money. We wanted love. She needed connections. She needed our power. When her nightmare showed up in real life, she ran straight into the arms of Treyfield.

And they, we all, threw her to the wolves.

"I've had enough," Onyx says in a voice that sounds like Falcon. "Quint, Ian. I'd like a word."

I follow the beta out of the lounge room. My stomach is roiling. The fear, the pain she must have gone through. I want to set this fucking city on fire.

Shouts come from the room we've just left, but Simon Shultz is a professional. You don't become the Treyfield Pack general manager without some skills. Brandy is no longer our problem. She'll be lucky to be anyone's problem. Treyfield will take care of her now.

Onyx turns, her omega standing close enough to touch. He keeps a protective hand on her back.

"Where is she?" Onyx's stark tone slices through the air.

"She ran," Ross says quietly. "West is trying to find her. We'll leave in a minute. But we needed you to hear what they've been saying. We want Silver to have her life back."

"And do you believe it?" Onyx snarls almost savagely. Her eyes are shiny with tears of fury.

I hesitate. "A few weeks ago, I might have believed it, but Silver is honest. The real Silver is kind and smart and wounded. Whatever happened in the past, I don't think it was her fault, and I believe her."

Onyx sags. "Me, too."

"She was going to choose us," Ian says softly. "At the Omega Meet. She was going to choose us."

"But she got scared and desperate. Why didn't she just tell me?" Onyx whispers. "Why didn't she just let me help her?"

"She tried telling people; no one believed her," I say bitterly.

Onyx picks up her phone and rapidly fires off a message. In twenty seconds, her phone is ringing.

"I need you to find Silver. No, she hasn't, no! Look, listen, we were wrong. We need to find her and make sure she's safe. Yes. It's urgent," Onyx says.

"Who did you call?" I ask when she hangs up.

She looks up, her eyes filled with pain. "I called everyone."

I answer the phone call as quickly as I can.

"Hello, is this Quinton of Pack Vore?"

"Yes. Speaking."

"Ah, good. I'm Detective Angel Montford."

My stomach turns to ice. "Is she okay-"

"She's fine. I've got her here. But she's refusing to speak to anyone and won't come out of the cell. Seemed the best idea to get the pack here. We saw the bonds."

I snort a hysterical laugh and turn the car around. "Is she okay? Is she hurt?"

"No, she's not hurt. A little bit upset, but not hurt." Angel clears his throat. "Please be aware that everyone is on their way."

"Everyone?"

"Um, most of the packs. Onyx put a call out. It's kinda how we roll now. If one of us asks, we just start jumping."

I groan. "Fine. See you in a few minutes."

The drive flies past in a blur, and then I'm inside the station, asking a very annoying, pimple-faced kid for Detective Montford and getting this little shit try to give me the runaround.

Angel opens a door and looks out. "Thought I heard you."

I huff and give the kid a narrow-eyed warning look before returning my stare to the alpha. "Angel, you look well fed."

"You calling me fat?" Angel glares.

I side-eye the detective and shrug. "I was being polite with small talk, and I guess I'm not good at it."

The detective is not fat at all. He's fit and dangerous looking. If he wasn't a cop, I might think he was some kind of boxer or fighter.

"Why wasn't this picked up when Treyfield did their background checks?" I snap as he leads through a heavy metal door and into the back of the station. Cops look up, watching me pass.

"How do you know they did background checks?"

"They do checks on everyone, it's common knowledge," I snap, impatient with this entire conversation.

Angel rubs his jaw. "The cop who took the original report lost the file. It never went into the system. The only copy was a paper copy, and that vanished a week after she lodged it. I managed to get it out of a retired friend of mine. He told me about a lot of files that had mysteriously never lodged themselves."

I let out a growl.

"And the other stuff, the whispers on the street, all that?"

"Yeah, well, I did grill Treyfield. He said the PI they hired was sketchy. They had the basic information; that was enough at the time. Treyfield made a decision to fire that particular man a few months later after another issue came up, but no one thought to check. They had Onyx, everyone was happy, and Silver was gone."

I close my eyes. "It didn't matter because she was at the refuge learning a lesson, and out of sight, out of mind, right?"

Angel gives a tight nod. "Yeah. Something like that."

He leads me through a room, and I come to a corridor full of people. Hazel, Onyx, Missy, Scarlet, and Jade stand together, talking.

I shake my head and edge past them. As soon as I get to the cage she's sitting in, I grip the bars.

"Do you know what this is?" I ask and stroke the bond mark on my chest.

Her eyes jerk open. "Quint?" She starts to shiver violently, and a low whine escapes.

Onyx tries to come towards us back. I glare at her, and she backs off.

"Do you know what this is?" I ask her again in a hard voice.

"It's a bond mark," she says in a voice that sounds exhausted and so heavy with grief.

"It's forever, Silver."

She peers up at me. "But Brandy-"

"Is a self-serving whore and is already packed and heading back to whatever hole the fuck she crawled out of. But you and I, we're meant to be pack, and pack don't abandon each other."

She sniffles, and then starts to cry, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around herself. I push the door open, stalk inside, and pull her onto my lap.

"Hush now, Silver. We don't need to talk about it if you don't want. We don't need to do anything you don't want to do. I just want to make you happy. We'll keep you safe. You never, ever have to go back to that dark place again."

Slowly, inch by inch, she unfurls and wraps herself around me. I stroke her back as the pack files in. Ross and West get in on the sides of us and cuddle close, but Ian takes one look and closes his eyes.

"You're safe. Thank you," he murmurs.

I stand up, feeling the need rolling off our alpha, and Ian hugs us, burying his face in her hair.

"I thought I lost you again."

I've never heard him so choked up, not even when Brandy rejected us…wait.

I inhale.

"Is that possible?" I muse out-loud.

"What?" Weston asks grumpily.

"Our scent match changed," Ross whispers. "Silver's our scent match now."

"It's been changing for years," Ian murmurs. He's not surprised, but he's much more observant than the rest of us.

"All right. So, I know this is a bit much, but there are some people who'd love to talk to you, who want to set things right. If you're able. But you don't have to if you don't want," Ian says to Silver. "If you tell me to send them away, I'll force them to go."

She lifts her head and nods. "Don't leave me."

"Never!" Ross says.

Ian goes to the door and waves.

A red-eyed Onyx is followed by the Raptore omega, Missy. Her gold and green eyes are fierce as she brushes back her ginger hair. Scarlet Waring, Pack Knight's alpha, comes with her commanding presence, her eyes softening upon seeing Silver.

Pack Montford's omega, Hazel, with her brown hair in a ponytail, her eyes shadowed in pain from her own experiences, rushes to Silver and squeezes her hand. And finally, I recognise Kandi and Jade from Pack Mortenson. They are good friends of Silver's; I believe. Angel, Falcon, Sven, and Adrian stand just outside, unobtrusively, against the wall, listening and ready to take notes on who we are about to destroy.

"We need to have a little talk. Omega to omega," Missy says with a deadly gleam in her eye. "I promise you, Silver, we're going to make everything right. All you need to do is tell us the names."

We sit around as best we can; the omegas listening intently as Silver tells her story.

And it's a story I hope she never has to tell again.